Thursday, 9 July 2015

Warhammer fantasy battle: it does what its says on the tin.





I've been playing warhammer since the late 80's and by and large in all that time the game has
remained, for me the same. I played 3rd, 4th and quite a bit of 6th. I enjoyed all three of those iterations immensely and truth be told there is very little difference in them. If you can play one you can play the other.

I'll admit that I've dallied a while with other systems, RT and 40K 2nd got a good look in, Fantasy Warlord and Armies of Arcana got a go and various skirmish systems. I'll leave aside historical gaming and admit I always went back to Warhammer. Why?


Because as I suggest in my title it does the job with no fuss. My games from an early age were always 1:1 clashes of my little models, each an individual. Only Warhammer stated them up individually and gave them each a chance to fight to the best of their skill, defend to a better or worse degree, damage or be damaged according to their physical make up and rely on their armour and equipment. The individual soldiers act to the wishes of the heroes and wizards around them and the monsters that populate the world. In short you couldn't get a better fantasy battle game. I don't feel the rules are overly complicated and resolution is quick and easy. With stats for most things rated out of 10 almost any situation can be dealt with by a half awake GM or a couple of mates having fun.



And this is why the monumental happenings in the GW world mean nothing to me. My game still exists. I could give the new rules a go, I may but what I already have isn't broken. Never has been and never will be.  And this to me is oldhammer, bumbling along in my own personal way playing my fantasy game the way I want and reaching out to people to say,"Who wants to play, War-ar-hammer. Who wants to play, War-ar-hammer."




Forget the guff do you want to play or not?


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33 comments:

  1. matthewjksullivan9 July 2015 at 05:01

    Nice post, Erny. Like you, I don’t feel particularly ruffled about what's going on at GW now. If anything, I'm glad they're experimenting.
    I mainly play 3rd edition, and frankly I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the diverse armies (especially when they're enriched with names, histories, battle cries and grudges), the psychology rules, and (of course) all the great background. On the downside, the games can last forever... so I appreciate the modern trend for shorter clashes and more mission-oriented battles.

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    1. Erny9 July 2015 at 05:09

      As a genral rule I don't play 3rd, I play warhammer, for example taking combat resolution from 4th but keeping the free hack speeds that side of things up. The magic in third is a little top heavy so my usual fix is nothing over level 2 or 3 but recently I've considered the magic system from 6th.

      That said I sometimes paly straight 3rd or even 4th.

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  2. Springinsfeld9 July 2015 at 05:50

    Well said Erny...I haven't played Warhammer for donkey's years , when it took off I was getting into historical rules and to be honest prefer collecting and modelling to playing. Having said that before Warhammer we used to do Fantasy games using WRG Renaissance which has a similar idea that each figure is an individual and thus gains loads of personality as they survive each successive game or die heroically....multi figure element based games like DBA and DBM just turned the game into glorified chess.

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 04:52

      I played DBA or perhaps DBM not sure which once. Never again, we used little sticks to ensure our angles of elements were correct enough to allow charges, a degree out and it was not allowed. I have better things to do.

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  3. Whiskey Priest9 July 2015 at 09:48

    Yes. Yes I do!

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 04:52

      OK perhaps we can arrange something big for the end of the month..

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  4. Thantsants9 July 2015 at 10:44

    Count me in too!

    Can't say I'm really fussed about all the hoo-hah going on at the moment either.

    As for 3rd - sometimes I quite like those combats that go grinding on although the combat resolution from 4th is a good way of speeding things up. Like you say Erny (and this really should be a no-brainer for everyone) you play it the way that you and your mates like.

    Happy bumbling Erny!

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 04:56

      End of the world it isn't. It appears there has been a collective odd moment happening all at once.

      I'm looking forward to trying to combat your giant/ship. Repeater bolt thrower to his eyes maybe? And no sculpting on goggles now I've mentioned my terrible plans.

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    2. Thantsants11 July 2015 at 13:01

      Not sure I would have the time! I might just lend him my sunglasses on the day though!

      I would probably recommend a strong sleeping draft as the most effective counter measure ; )

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    3. Erny11 July 2015 at 13:57

      Even if it isn't sunny enough for sunglasses you need to make sure you have them on you now. With a tin of beer and a straw. Ok now I have a picture of the beer in the ship like one of those 80's drinking caps.

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  5. airbornegrove269 July 2015 at 11:02

    Well said Erny, that is what I have been trying to do with a couple buddies here locally. They however are way to ingrained as GW fanboys, and would much rather rage about the goings on.
    Like you and Matt I'm still stuck in Warhammer though it is pretty well homebrewed/houserules of 3rd.
    I am so appreciative of the community that there are others out here in the blogosphere just like me.

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 05:01

      Thats what oldhammer always was, a bunch of people on the blogs realising they were all doing things with old rules and miniatures in largely the same way. Glad to confirm it's still there.

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  6. Hendrid9 July 2015 at 11:41

    Here, here! Play the game you want to play, the way you want to play it.

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 05:01

      If it's not fun you ain't doing it right.

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  7. private w.9 July 2015 at 12:45

    Hey, hey, Erny, that's my feeling too. I just like playing. And I would love to throw down and share a table with you one day!

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 05:03

      Some day, even if it has to be virtual though I'd love to have a game with your Britains collection. Your American civil war collection is a thing of beauty.

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    2. private w.10 July 2015 at 23:31

      Thank you, Erny! That is a very nice thing to read! I love my Britains. Most of the people I game with will either run or roll their eyes whenever I start busting out, or even start to talk about the wonders that are Britains Deetails! I'll have to set up a game with the ACW ones in your honour, Erny.

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    3. Erny11 July 2015 at 14:05

      I cannot belive that anyone interested in miniatures doesn't also have a place inh their hearts for Britians Deetails. I have a few myself, mainly knights and, "cowboys and indians" along with a handful of the '70s british paras and space troopers. Oh and some of the Britains Trees that show up in the 3rd ed rule book and plenty of their animals.

      Your collection however is something else. I used to droool over a catalog picture of an ACW battle but your set up puts that picture to shame.

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    4. private w.17 July 2015 at 14:40

      Hey, thanks, Erny! I'm planning a Black Powder game with the ACW Britains sometime later this week, would you like to take command of one of the sides via some written orders for your force?

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    5. Erny18 July 2015 at 16:32

      Thats very thoughtful of you P.W. Let me know how you'd like to go about doing just that! I guess either post up on your blog and I'll comment, perhaps a fun blog post in itself or I guess we can figure out a way to swap email. If your on the Oldhammer forum or lead adventure you could also PM me.

      I've had Black Powder since it came out and still ahven't had a game yet.

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    6. private w.20 July 2015 at 11:49

      Hey, that's great Erny! Black Powder is such a fantastic and quick game, I think it would be perfect for this kind of thing. I was imagining basing the game very loosely on the ACW demo that was played out in the Black Powder book. Perhaps with simply one brigade per side (four infantry regiments, one cavalry and one battery). Let me know what you think and which side you would like to be.

      In terms of communication, I'll check in here and then in a couple of days post up the battlefield on the Battling With Britains blog and we can continue over there via the comment section if you like. Looking forward to it, Erny!

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    7. private w.24 July 2015 at 22:34

      Hi Erny,

      I posted up the table and the forces up on the Battling With Britains blog. I changed the scenario around a bit - no longer based it on the Demo game in the Black Powder book. The figs/units on the table will all have to be diced for entry, I just put them on to show the available forces.

      Erny, I hadn't heard which side you wanted, but I have a friend coming over for a SAGA game tomorrow night and if it ends early I might suggest we play this Black Powder game. I hope that is okay and hopefully you and I can try an internet game some other time. Although, a full-on real shared table in the future would be the ideal!

      Private W.

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    8. Erny25 July 2015 at 13:37

      No problems PW, I've been busy with Oldhammer weekend stuff. Certainly catch you on you blog though.

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  8. Tiny Basement Wars9 July 2015 at 15:34

    Spot on. New year, new ruleset. Wouldn't make any difference to me, had GW not made them available for free. Since they did, I'll use them for a bit and tweak as I see fit. I love to play, don't much care about the ruleset so long as the game makes sense and moves quickly. The new AofS rules do that for me, just cause its easy, but I'm sure there will be some great home-brew modifications folks make based on other rulesets (Saga fatigue chits, anyone?), older GW rules (I'd like to add some elements from Mordhheim w/r/t movement), adding points (I've already seen some folks coming up with point systems) and creating new units from scratch. The only thing I'm worried about is GW killing the last of the minis that retain the feel of Warhammer Fantasy and replacing them with 40k clones. But, hey, I'm buying most of my minis off eBay at this point anyway.

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    1. Erny10 July 2015 at 05:05

      I'll be watching your efforts with AoS with interest.

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  9. Bulldoglopez10 July 2015 at 21:06

    Totally agree with you! All this crying and moaning about AoS is just the pinnacle of stupidity. There's nothing wrong with my old rulebook and models, other than the.fact that they aren't killing enough stuff.

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    1. Erny11 July 2015 at 14:06

      Not long to go for your models American oldhammer weekend is soon!

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    2. airbornegrove2611 July 2015 at 15:11

      I shall smear the tables with his dark Elves Blood. I'm going to have to take a month off after to write all the comic reports. ;)

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    3. Erny11 July 2015 at 17:15

      Thats what stopped me doing comic reports, so little time.

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  10. Snickit14 July 2015 at 00:20

    Indeed, play what we wanna play and give nod of existence to the new rules sets but kindly rebuff them with a "no ta, not for me thanks". There are people out there that want to play the new games and good luck to them, I'm sure they'll have lots of fun, they're just not our games is all. What we should never do is belittle and chastise those that want to play the new games, or a newer version than the one we love (I'm not saying you have, just making a point) as all of it is good fun and we, as gamers, should be all about the fun! I think the only time we should ever be up in arms is if GW found a way to prevent us playing any older incarnations, which is NEVER gonna happen. Therefore it's happy days all round.

    Righteo, after a long a hiatus to sort out the boy I need to dig out my Rats, my dice and start getting ready for the Weekender in a few weeks!

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    1. Erny18 July 2015 at 16:33

      Just caught these later comments. Nice to have you back Bro, good luck getting ready in time.

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  11. 24_Cigarettes15 July 2015 at 22:37

    Great post, as usual, I've always been interested in playing armies of arcana and would love to read a batrep, problem is most online are crap. Not sure if if this is the place for it.
    I started playing warhammer with the goblin/ high elf box set. I played mostly 4th edition but I am now a dedicated 3rd edition player and I've been lucky enough to find a couple of fun opponents who care more about a story and having a good time than looking up rules, but also the misfortune of playing against some real rules lawyers. Matt sully has been great even though his man mangler is the bane of my existence.
    God I hope someday I can get across the pond and have a game with some UK oldhammerers, clan scourge on tour!

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    1. Erny18 July 2015 at 16:35

      AZrmies of Arcana is a sort of almost but not quite game for me. In so far as it's almost warhammer and everything I woudl do to improve it would make it more and more like warhammer. I figured lets just play warhammer.

      Considering the size of you country I'm guessing getting two opponents is lucking out!

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